Insomnia (film, 2002)

The film takes place in Alaska , in the small town of Nightmute . The peaceful life of the city is violated by the murder of a young 17-year-old Kay Connell ( Crystal Low ), whose body is found in a landfill. To investigate this case, police detectives Will Dormer ( Al Pacino ) and Hap Eckhart ( Martin Donovan ) fly from Los Angeles . They are assisted by local police, in particular Ellie Burr ( Hilary Swank ), a young detective who is a fan of Dormer’s investigative work. The situation is aggravated by the fact that Dormer, investigating one of his previous cases, fabricated evidence against one of the suspects, and he was imprisoned. But Eckhart found out about this and promised Dormer to testify against him upon his return to Los Angeles in exchange for his immunity.

Police officers find the backpack of the killed Kay at the boat station. Dormer orders them to advertise on the radio about the search for this backpack and return it back to the station to catch the "live bait" killer. When they are ambushed, a suspect arrives at the crime scene. It is impossible to catch him, because he is hiding in a secret hole at the station. Then the police, led by Dormer, pursue the suspect in the forest, where there is a thick fog. Hiding from the police, the killer injures one of the cops in the leg, but the bullet goes to fly. Dormer notices a figure in the fog and shoots from his spare revolver. Hurrying to the man he injured, Dormer finds a 38-caliber pistol left by the suspect. Then he discovers that he did not shoot the killer, but Eckhart. Understanding what his partner’s murder looks like amid the events of his exposure, Dormer tells everyone that Eckhart was shot dead by a suspect. He also does not mention the discovery of a 38-caliber pistol.

Ellie Burr is responsible for investigating the shootout in the forest. She and the team manage to find a 38-caliber bullet that injured the first police officer. That same night, Dormer walks into an alley and shoots from a pistol he found at the carcass of a dead animal, and then extracts and cleans the bullet. Then Dormer goes to the morgue, where he takes the bullet extracted from Eckhart’s body from the pathologist and replaces it with a 38-caliber bullet.

Over the next few days, Dormer suffers from insomnia caused by guilt over the murder of Eckhart and exacerbated by constant sunlight. In addition, the killer Kay Connell begins to call Dormer, who claims to have seen Dormer kill his partner. When the police find out that Kay was a fan of local writer Walter Finch ( Robin Williams ), Dormer goes to his house and breaks open the door. At this time, Finch returns, but realizes that there is someone in the apartment. He escapes from home, chased by Dormer, and eventually escapes. Dormer returns to Finch’s apartment and hides a pistol he found in the woods in the ventilation room to set Finch up.

After some time, Finch contacts Dormer and makes an appointment in a crowded place, on a ferry. Finch wants to transfer suspicion from himself to Randy ( Jonathan Jackson ), the guy Kay met at school. In response, he promises not to tell anyone that Dormer killed Eckhart. After that, Finch gets off the ferry, leaving Dormer alone and showing the detective a voice recorder to which he recorded their conversation. The next night, Finch calls Dormer again and says that Kay’s death was an “accident." He beat the girl to death in a fit of rage because she laughed at his feelings. The next day, Finch gives false testimony at the police station, claiming that Randy has a gun with which he threatened Kay. Dormer realizes that Finch found the weapon hidden in the ventilation and hid it in Randy's house. The police immediately leave for Randy’s house, where they find a 38-caliber pistol, from which firing was conducted in the forest. Randy is being arrested.

Burr returns to the place of Eckhart’s death and finds there a sleeve from a 9-millimeter pistol that does not fit into the picture of the events. She finds in the material of one of the cases that Dormer was investigating that he has the same 9mm pistol. Comparing these evidence, Burr begins to suspect Dormer of Eckhart’s death. Meanwhile, Dormer, tormented by his conscience, tells the landlady of the hotel he was living in about an investigation by the Los Angeles Department of Internal Investigations: he fabricated evidence to help convict the pedophile, who, as his instinct told him, was guilty of killing the child. His partner Eckhart found out about this, but did not have time to tell anyone. If this information “surfaced”, then the killer would be released.

Burr, hoping to get things done, comes to Finch's home. He finds and is going to give Burr letters to Kay, in which the girl wrote about bullying by Randy. At this point, Burr is trying to get a gun to arrest Finch, but he hits a woman and hides in a barn by the lake. Dormer comes to the aid of Burr and finds her unconscious. The detective is too disoriented due to lack of sleep to cope alone with Finch. Burr wakes up and tells Dormer that he knows about the murder of his partner. Dormer admits that he is no longer sure whether this was an accident. At this time, Finch, who is in the barn, begins to shoot at them with a shotgun. Burr shoots back, and Dormer, undercover, makes his way to the barn. Having penetrated inside, Dormer enters the battle with Finch, as a result of which Finch dies, and Dormer is mortally wounded. Burr rushes to meet the dying Dormer coming out of the barn and consoles him, saying that Eckhart’s murder was accidental, and then he is going to throw out a 9-mm sleeve to keep everything secret. However, Dormer stops the girl, telling her not to change her principles, and asks to let him fall asleep.

• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Screenwriter: Hillary Sitz
• Operator: Wally Pfister
• Composer: David Julian

• Two detectives who came to investigate the circumstances of the crime have “speaking” names. The surname "Dormer" is similar to the French word "sleeping" ( fr. Dormeur ). The name Eckhart - “Hap” in translation from English means “luck” ( English hap ). In the film, Dormer will suffer wildly from insomnia, and Eckhart is not very lucky.
• Harrison Ford was invited to the lead role.
• The director of the painting "Insomnia" was supposed to be Jonathan Demmy , but in the end the film was shot by Christopher Nolan .
• The first (and so far the only) film by Christopher Nolan, to which the script was not written by him.

• 2003 - two nominations for the Saturn Prize: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robin Williams), Best Screenplay (Hillary Sitz)
• 2003 - nomination for the " Satellite " award for the best installation (Dodi Dorn)

• Insomnia on the Internet Movie Database